Red Flag Warning prompts reflections on both hard data and personal experiences with October fire events. 

As we move into fall and the holiday season, cooler temperatures may give a sense of relief, but in California, the wildfire threat is far from over. October, November, and December bring unique dangers—specifically, dry conditions combined with the Santa Ana and North Winds, which fan the flames of some of the deadliest fires in the state’s history. Today, the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for Thursday evening through Saturday, with high winds and critically dry conditions, highlighting the ongoing fire risks this time of year.

The North Collier Fire Department (NCFD) in Florida developed a mutually beneficial emergency response system. Using Tablet Command, leadership tailored their solution to meet the needs of their unique region, including:

• A nimble solution with real-time data and tracking capabilities
• Streamlined interdepartmental communication
• Seamless functioning to resolve unanticipated challenges unprecedented scenarios

From brush fires to hurricanes, North Collier needed an incident response and management solutions capable of uniting regional agencies to respond to any hazard. 

Tablet Command is excited to announce its partnership with Genasys (formerly known as Zonehaven), the global leader in protective communications solutions and systems. This collaboration marks the first time all agencies using Tablet Command and TC Mobile will have real-time access to evacuation zones via Genasys Protect EVAC. The evacuation layer provides first responders with zone-specific data and insights to enhance interagency situational awareness and communication during fire-related incidents.

You can read the full press release here.

Earlier in 2023, Tablet Command added support for In AppAudio.  The features allows users to access multiple audio streams and maintain situational awareness, even while away from the radio. 

The City of Sacramento Fire Department executed a smart deployment of Tablet Command to level up their fire operations, increasing:

• Interoperability between the department and surrounding organizations
• Tracking and visibility of all assets and personnel
• Access to real-time information
  
  

From wildfires to the regional high-rise drill, this department faces challenges that demand more than whiteboards and paper. 

On March 21 Tablet Command released version 3.5 of our Tablet Command and TC Mobile applications for iOS with support for in-app audio.  When enabled and configured for an account, multiple audio streams can be quickly played for additional situational awareness when users are away from the radio.

I was selected for flight rescue training early in my career as a firefighter/paramedic. Training started on the ground, running through some pre-hoist/rescue checklists. The crew chief called out: "Power to the cable cutter," the pilot responded, "Check." After two rounds, I asked, "What is the cable cutter?" The crew chief explained that the pilot could activate a demolition charge in the hoist that would sever the cable and drop the load if it became tangled, or if the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure. I paused for a second and realized that I was the load!  It turns out there were not one but two ways to cut me – the load – from the aircraft.

With version 3.4 of Tablet Command we released a series of new features and user interface changes to make the app easier to use, more intuitive and flexible.  In the 3.4 release notes we detailed some of these features. We also felt it would be helpful to create a series of short videos to further explain the features and show how to take advantage of them.

Tablet Command is excited to welcome Mike McMath to the team as a Customer Support Specialist. For the last 30 years, he has worked for fire and EMS organizations in Southern California, including the Redlands Fire Department, where he retired as a Captain. Mike is passionate about improving the technical capabilities and overall success of the fire service, having implemented influential services such as incident reporting, fire prevention inspections, electronic patient care records, station alerting, staffing management, CAD services, as well as Tablet Command, for many San Bernardino County organizations.

For more about Mike and the rest of our team, see the Our Team page.

Late last week most of the AlertWildfire Cameras were no longer available from the AlertWildfire Web site and therefore from the authoritative CalOES California Webcams map layer, which many of Tablet Command customers use routinely to access live camera feeds.  Many of the camera feeds are now available on the Alert California site, but there is not a map layer available to replace the CalOES layer.  Several customers reached out with concerns about not having access to this important situational awareness tool at a critical time during the California Wildland season.